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Union minister Nitin Gadkari reportedly said political leaders who sell dreams to people, but fail to make them a reality get “beaten up” by the public. This is not the first time Gadkari’s cryptic comment had sparked a row, when the Maratha reservation was been considered he remarked where are the job?
The minister, who handles a host of infrastructure-related portfolios in the Modi government, asserted he is a doer and delivers on his promises.
“People like (political) leaders who sell them dreams. But if these dreams are not realised, then they beat them up (politically) as well,” Gadkari said, speaking at a function.
“I am not the one who only sells dreams, but I deliver 100 per cent what I talk about,” he said.
Gadkari, a former BJP president, also spoke about his stint as Maharashtra’s PWD minister when the Shiv Sena-BJP government was in power (1995-99) in the state.
“The mediapersons in Mumbai know what kind of a person I am as they have seen how I complete projects. They do trust me,” said the 61-year-old politician from Nagpur.
“People used to laugh at me when I, as PWD minister, used to claim that I was going to build over 50 flyovers in Mumbai, and bring down the travel time between Mumbai and Pune to merely two hours (via 91-km expressway).
“I was ridiculed but I proved them wrong and completed every project I had promised,” Gadkari said.
In December, Gadkari said at an event in Pune that leadership should have the tendency to own up defeat and failures.
The remarks had come days after the BJP’s dismal show in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh assembly elections.
As the comments created a controversy, Gadkari said his statements had been twisted and alleged “there was a sinister campaign by some opposition parties and a section of the media to twist” his comments and “draw politically motivated inferences to malign” him and his party.
